(Best E Casino) - The Chicago Blackhawks will begin the Joel Quenneville era this evening when they visit the St. Louis Blues for a Central Division battle at Scottrade Center.

The Blackhawks fired head coach Denis Savard on Thursday after he led the club to a 1-2-1 start to the season. The team immediately replaced him on the bench with Quenneville, who is the all-time winningest coach in Blues history after leading St. Louis from 1996-2004.

Savard, who spent 12 of his 17 NHL seasons as a star center with the Blackhawks, had been the club's head coach since November 29, 2006. He posted a record of 65-67-15, including a mark of 40-34-8 last season for the team's first winning campaign since 2001-02 -- which was also the most recent playoff appearance for the once-proud franchise.

Quenneville has a record of 438-283-118 for a winning percentage of .592 in parts of 11 years as an NHL head coach. He was relieved from his head coaching duties in Colorado after losing to Detroit in the second round of last year's playoffs.

Ironically, Savard picked up a victory in his final game behind the Blackhawks bench as Chicago downed the visiting Phoenix Coyotes, 4-1, at the United Center. Martin Havlat registered a goal and an assist to lead the 'Hawks to their first win of the season.

Patrick Sharp, Brian Campbell and Colin Fraser also scored for the Blackhawks. Nikolai Khabibulin was sharp between the pipes, stopping 29-of-30 shots.

The Blackhawks are 0-2-0 as the road team this year after going 17-18-6 away from the Windy City in 2007-08.

St. Louis, meanwhile, will aim for its third straight win when it takes the ice tonight. The Blues are coming off a blowout victory over visiting Dallas, as Brad Boyes recorded a goal and an assist and Manny Legace made 29 saves to lead St. Louis to a 6-1 decision. Boyes has scored a goal in all four games for St. Louis this season.

Eric Brewer, Keith Tkachuk, Yan Stastny, Steve Wagner and Jay McKee each tallied for St. Louis, which has won three of four to start the season and scored at least five goals in each of the three wins. The scoring output is a change from last season's Blues team that tallied just 2.5 goals per game.

Legace was especially effective in the final two periods, stopping 22-of-22 shots for St. Louis.

Tonight's test marks the second test of a season-high seven-game homestand for the Blues, who are 2-0 as the host this year after going 20-15-6 in the Gateway City last season.

Chicago has taken two straight, three of four and five of the last seven encounters with the Blues. However, the Blackhawks have been handed losses in three of their previous five stops in St. Louis.